Mike Klis

Klis: NFL more of a coach's league than a quarterback's league

The players are wrong. The coaches, general managers, fans — they're all wrong.

The NFL is not a quarterback's league.

Just because it has become the No. 1 cliché doesn't mean the quarterback is the league's most important person.

The absence of Sean Payton and return of Jeff Fisher prove the NFL is a coach's league.

"I've always believed as a coach you can make a quick impact," said Broncos coach John Fox. "But to get to the elite, it takes you a minute. It doesn't all happen overnight. There's no question it's a factor. But in an ultimate team game, it takes a while to bring a team together."

Fox is much like Fisher, come to think of it. Both are rooted on the defensive side. They are likable guys who can command the room.

Each has won and won big with one team without winning it all.

Each quickly brought respectability to his second team. Fox improved the Broncos in one year from 4-12 to 8-8 while tailoring his offense around the unique skill set of quarterback Tim Tebow.

Fisher took charge of the St. Louis Rams, who finished 2-14 last year, and has already guaranteed improvement with a 3-2 start this year.

It's the New Orleans Saints, though, who are presenting evidence no position is more valuable than a head coach.

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A case can be made that Drew Brees is among the NFL's very best quarterbacks. The Saints certainly made that case this summer when they made him the league's highest-paid player at $20 million per year.

Yet the Saints lost Payton, their head coach and offensive mastermind, to a year-long suspension for his role — read: the all-important boss role — in the bounty scandal.

New Orleans started 0-4 before finally getting its first win last weekend.

"If you don't think Nick Saban matters? Then you and I disagree," said Jon Gruden, ESPN's "Monday Night Football" analyst and a former NFL head coach. "The best players don't always win. It's the best team that wins. Execution and preparation and attention to detail — that's the biggest part of winning. All these games are decided by five, six, seven points over the last five or six years."

Saban has built the University of Alabama into a perennial contender for college football's national championship. Jim Leonhard, a Broncos safety who has been with four NFL teams in eight seasons, thinks the head coach matters a little more in college than in the NFL. Leonhard has played with bad quarterbacks (Kelly Holcomb, J.P. Losman, Trent Edwards) and for bad head coaches (Mike Mularkey, Dick Jauron). Leonhard has been with talented rookie head coaches (John Harbaugh, Rex Ryan) and rookie quarterbacks (Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez). And now Leonhard is with a veteran coach, Fox, and a veteran quarterback, Peyton Manning.

"I think there's certain quarterbacks where they could run the show," Leonhard said. "Peyton, Tom Brady, Brees, (Philip) Rivers and (Aaron) Rodgers. Guys who have been in the same system for so long, they've got a pretty good feel with how to run the team. With young quarterbacks, it's a little different. Even if you have a great young quarterback, you'd better have a strong head coach."

Denver cornerback Champ Bailey was asked, "Given a choice to play for any team, would you pick the one with the best head coach or the best quarterback?"

Bailey paused, giving it some thought. At least it wasn't a slam-dunk question.

"I'd go with the quarterback," Bailey said. "Because I've played with great coaches before and it didn't work out."

Bailey has played for some of the NFL's most accomplished coaches in the modern era: Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Norv Turner, Mike Shanahan.

Maybe head coaches and quarterbacks are the football equivalent of the "chicken and egg." John Elway couldn't win the Super Bowl until he was coached by Shanahan. And now Shanahan must prove he can win it all without Elway's help.

"If you have the right guy, No. 1, get him a quarterback," Gruden said. "I mean, who are we kidding? If you have the right coach and the right quarterback, you can be in this thing every year. You might have a year where you fall off, but if you get in the tournament with the right coach and the right quarterback? You can run through the door."

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